News in brief - Nov. 5, 2007

Sermo announces alliance with Pfizer - Retail clinic chains expand - Google sets PHR release date - Revolution sells CDHP unit

Sermo announces alliance with Pfizer

Sermo, a Cambridge, Mass.-based company that runs an online community for physicians, has signed its first pharmaceutical client.

Sermo announced in October that Pfizer has signed a 15-month deal giving its physician staff members access to the site, which has 31,000 doctor members. The deal is not exclusive, and Sermo says it is in talks with other drug companies.

Any posts by Pfizer's physicians would be marked with the company's logo, according to Sermo. Both companies said the deal allows pharmaceutical companies to test how social media can facilitate interactions between doctors and drug companies.

Sermo said it originally had no intention of adding pharmaceutical clients to the hedge-fund clients and others who pay to access the site to get an idea of what doctors are thinking. The company said it had received feedback from its membership -- growing at 1,000 to 2,000 per month -- that it wanted a way to get industry participation in a controlled fashion. But pharmaceutical ads are still barred from the site.

Sermo has struck alliances with various medical organizations to allow access to the site, or enhancement of its content. In May, the American Medical Association and Sermo agreed to develop direct links between Sermo members and AMA leadership, and to place a link to Sermo at the bottom of AMNews stories, so those stories can be discussed there.

Retail clinic chains expand

Take Care Health Systems, the retail-based clinic chain owned by Walgreens, has announced that it plans to complete a major expansion before the end of the year.

The clinic chain said it would enter nine new markets -- Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, Tenn., Orlando, Fla., Tampa, Fla., and Tucson, Ariz. -- and expand in its four existing markets of Chicago, Kansas City, Milwaukee and St. Louis. In total, the company plans to open 100 new clinics by the end of 2007, and 400 by the end of 2008.

Take Care Health Systems was acquired by Walgreens in May 2007 and since has appointed a new senior executive and opened an operations center in Fargo, N.D.

Meanwhile, My Healthy Access, a retail clinic chain founded by Houston-based Intrepid Holdings, announced that it had opened 12 new clinic sites in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. The clinic chain started in Houston, where it operates clinics located at Wal-Mart Supercenters.

Google sets PHR release date

Google is confirming that its upcoming health platform will include a personal health record.

Information Week reported that Marissa Mayer, who took over Google's health products department when Adam Bosworth stepped down earlier this year, told attendees at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco last month that the Google PHR should arrive by next year.

Google spokesman Steve Langford confirmed to AMNews that Mayer made some comments regarding a launch, but said her comments were along the lines of "in the very near future." He said the company does not yet have a formal launch date.

Revolution sells CDHP unit

Revolution Health has sold ConnectYourHealthCare, a consumer-directed health plan account administrator based in Hunt Valley, Md., to St. Louis-based Express Scripts, just two years after acquiring it.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Revolution Health, started by former AOL Chair Steve Case, did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment. Revolution bought the company in 2005 along with six other consumer-directed health plan-related companies.

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